Pyschology of Connection

The psychology of buying fascinates me, especially when it's based on making connections through touch. Our curiosity might get us in trouble but just think about all those connections we're making.

I grew up with family members who shopped as a hobby and realize how shopping is ingrained in our culture. Like it or not, it's how some of us find satisfaction, occupy our time and fund other parts of our culture. My father and I always laughed at our efforts to outsmart commercials and long before DVR we would talk about how the mute button was destroying advertising. How ironic now that I'm a brand strategist. It's even a little sad that now I'm blogging about my favorite spots. My only hope is that I can evolve what used to bore me. If advertising is here to stay, why not design stories that are engaging and entertaining. With that in mind here are a few ways to communicate better.

This article in Time discusses how touching an object creates a relationship and makes you more likely to buy it. The phenomenon is based on research of the "endowment effect", which states that owning an object creates more value in the mind of a consumer. This is based on the premise that touching an object makes you feel more connected to it. This segues nicely into another article, designing to sell, which lists successful user experience techniques. More specifically they talk about trials as some of the best strategies to lure customers. In an online world we can't always touch a product but we can create an experience that is as close to touching it as possible.

As online selling continues to evolve I think we're going to start seeing techniques for developing a connection. Right now that may mean more pictures, or techniques to create a deeper level of engagement and interaction. In the future it may mean using a holographic projector create a 3 dimensional replica on your desk. It would be great to experience a product by visualizing it as if it really existed